The intending godfather

The face-off between Governor  Sim Fubara of Rivers State and the his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, was predictable. For this writer the surprise is that it came too early in the day. Feelers from the political war front are that the former Governor’s interest is being undermined.  I had held the view before now that Governor Fubara ought to know that Wike, who seem to  have acquired the position of intending godfather of  politics in Rivers State, would interfere in the governance of the state. I understand that the former governor nominated a large number of members of Fubara’s cabinet. Many members of the State House of Assembly enjoyed support from the former governor prior to the election that brought them in office. It was, therefore, easy for to mobilise them to begin impeachment procedure against the incumbent governor when both men fell apart.

Wike  noted that his intending political godson  had begun rather early in the day to build his own structure and, Perhaps, dismantle the structure that Wike had built over the years. Tomorrow came too early for the  predecessor and successor but the Supreme Court has saved President Bola Ahmed Tinibu from his tomorrow which Atiku tried very hard to bring to fruition. Tomorrow is bound to come. How it comes is largely dependent on today. What we do today is the determinant of how tomorrow comes. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s tomorrow has been hard in coming because the issue of his school in the United States and the papers he used to gain admission into a University in that country have remained impregnable since 1999 when the matter surfaced. Former Vice- President Atiku Abubaker insists that the documents he got from the United States concerning the President showed that there was forgery, identity theft and perjury.

But the matter has remained a cat with many lives. The Supreme Court gave it another life, and perhaps a permanent life when it refused to accept Atiku’s documents in evidence. It refused to consider the academic records of the President obtained from the Chicago State University, which Atiku sought to tender as fresh evidence to prove his allegation of certificate forgery against the President. Justice Inyang Okoro, who read the judgment Said ‘it is a settled law that the time fixed by the constitution for the doing of anything cannot be extended. It is immutable, and it is fixed like the rock of Gibraltar, and it cannot be moved, expanded and elongated, or stretched beyond what it states’. That comment from the final arbiter on legal issues in the land put paid to determining the veracity of the evidence, given that the Supreme Court  neither admitted nor discussed it. It may yet rise again if the President decides to allow the status quo  remain on that issue. Tomorrow may still come if the President and his aides do nothing to remedy the error of yesterday. Atiku says he has done well to tell Nigerians that something is fishy about the president’s educational background. But the President and his aides should move now and rectify whatever defaults therein, more  so given that the Supreme Court did not comment on the matter. Someone may still decide to fish in that troubled water in the future. Tomorrow may still come.

But for the Governor of Rivers State Siminalayi Fubara and his predecessor, Chief Nyesom Wike, tomorrow came rather early. The later helped put the former in office, but it would seem that Wike was posturing as the godfather of River’s politics. He wanted to run the state with a remote control in his hands. He would use it to  turn the Governor’s channel where he wanted. Both men fell out too early in the day. Sim knows how he came into office. He probably also knew that his predecessor would make demands on him to the point of running the government with him. It is in the character of intending godfathers to take political control of their political wards. I insist that Fubara may have been deluding himself if he believed that Wike would allow him run the state without being overbearing. Wike seems to be in the political school of President Bola Tinubu, which was my surprise when elder statesman, Pa Edwin Clark, called on the President to intervene on the wrangling in Rivers State. Is it the same man in whose political pocket Lagos has been tucked comfortably, whom Wike saved from a damaging fall at the last polls, that would stop another emerging godfather?  Wike is following the footsteps of his new political ally and I think Pa. Clark would be expecting too much to expect any resolution that would put Wike on the receiving end. The former governor was prepared for the tomorrow that came early.  He has the state house of Assembly speaker and the majority in his pocket, which was why it took no time for the impeachment move against the governor to be activated. Impeachment seem to be the civilian equivalent of a coup. But Wike has noted that the matter would be resolved without going through that rout. Governors from the People’s Democratic Party would eild into the matter.

It is, however, good to know that the President has stepped into the matter and got the warring parties to sheathe their swords. The President would have to put on the garment of a statemen in the matter because complications arise in the political leanings of the warring parties. Wike says he remains a member of the People’s Democratic Party but his body language portrays another thing. His loyalists in the Stat Assembly have already defected to the ruling All Progressive Congress. The President would have to adjudicate on the matter from a neutral stand point. The possibility of such stance for someone who has effectively done what Wike wants to do in Rivers State is remote but that would be the real taste of neutrality for the President. Wike, the intending godfather of Rivers State politics, may not relent in his efforts to bring that ambition to fruition.